1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for expanding and contracting a waist part of articles of clothing including pants, culottes, skirt, etc. of a type having waist pockets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among conventional expanding and contracting structures for pants or the like in which the waist part of the pants or the like is provided with an elastic member, there has been proposed such a structure that a front waist part at an upper end of a front body part and a back waist part at an upper end of a back body part are adapted to be expanded and contracted in a sliding manner, so that the elastic member may not be exposed by the expanding and contracting action, and an appearance of the pants can be improved. There have been also proposed various forms for improving the above described structure, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 2578079, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3069120, and so on. The applicant too has proposed, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 11-181604, a waist expanding and contracting structure for pants or the like which is an improvement of the prior art.
The conventional waist expanding and contracting structure for pants or the like has had such a problem that the waist pockets may change in depth as the waist part is expanded or contracted, and when the waist part is stretched, the waist pockets may become shallow and contents inside the pockets may be exposed and drop.
Moreover, in the conventional structure, when the waist pockets have become shallow, openings of the waist pockets are largely inclined at the same time, and water or dust may become likely to intrude into the pockets.
In view of the above drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a waist expanding and contracting structure for pants or the like in which depth and width of waist pockets may not change even when the waist part is expanded or contracted, and the pockets may be dummy pockets while fasteners are closed, without a risk of intrusion of water or dust.